


Across the Universe

by AllennellA



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shop Space Pirates with Daemons, Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universes, Epic Friendship, F/M, Gen, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-24 16:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2589038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllennellA/pseuds/AllennellA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Aladdin ponders the parallel universes, hears a graduation speech, crashes a space ship, is too young to understand his weird friends' antics, and hunts after ghosts.</p><p>Written for AliAla Week 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> You can find this on tumblr here: http://allisnotgold.tumblr.com/post/90976675777/day-6-7-fate-not-alone
> 
> It has been editted slightly since it was originally posted there. Only minor edits though, like spelling and grammar, so it doesn't matter too much if you read it there and don't feel like reading it again. I'm just now getting around to posting this here! Whoops, sorry?
> 
> I had a lot of fun participating in AliAla week 2014. Also I wrote this all in two evenings, for the prompts of fate and not alone.

Aladdin sometimes wishes he could see into those other worlds and universes that Solomon’s wisdom has reassured him over and over again exist.

In some of them, he knows that things are much worse, that Al-Tharmen wins, and there is no king like Alibaba to stand up for the poor, suffering people; no one who means well and falls short, like Sinbad; no Ren Kouen with an overbearing will and a strong ideal to create change. There are no mothers left alive to give out sweet smiles and loving words because someone made a different choice and everything went wrong.

But Solomon’s wisdom also informs him of the fact that there are worlds and universes out there so different, he couldn’t even imagine them. Worlds without magic, where the Rukh have never been seen, not by anyone, where kings don’t exist and where the technology and the customs are so strange, he’d never quite manage to understand it all.

Aladdin sort of wants to imagine what that might be like.

He hears the pattering of feet down the hallway and loud, cheery voices, and Aladdin can’t help but be jolted out of his thoughts, ready to join in the fun. Alibaba promised him that Morgiana would join them and they’d go swimming, and he wants to enjoy this tiny little peace he has and understands.

Out of all of the worlds out there, Aladdin doesn’t want to imagine a world without his friends.

* * *

It’s a bright, sunny afternoon and the sun is actually forcing them under the shade of a tree so pathetic that Morgiana is sitting on Masrur’s lap just to fit. They don’t burn very easily, but they are wearing thick layers of sunscreen to prevent themselves from turning red. Aladdin’s okay with it, he’s tucked under the fig tree with no issues because even for an 8th grader, he’s tiny. He’d expected to break 5’0” before high school, which is only a summer away, but…

The group of three is awkwardly silent, because of the situation. It could be construed as a sad feeling or a happy one, and no one is quite sure how to feel.  But Aladdin’s not sad, he’s proud! His big brother’s graduating from high school! No one thought that would happen, to be honest. Even he doubted Judal, with his arrest record, was gonna make it out of the halls on time.

Aladdin felt horribly out of place. Even Morgiana, the next youngest, was already a sophomore in high school, going to be a junior next year. Masrur was going to be a senior. Those two/three years of age difference seemed to matter way too much!

“I can’t believe that everyone’s graduating this year!” Aladdin said, just to break the silence. Masrur and Morgiana weren’t much for talking.

“Yes, it’s surprising,” Morgiana’s mouth seemed to curve upwards as she spoke softly. The lack of a real smile didn’t shock Aladdin; just as the siblings didn’t talk much, neither did they emote.

Aladdin sighed, but perked up again. There was no reason to be sad! Today was a happy occasion. It wasn’t every day that most of your friends graduated from high school! Sinbad, Yamu, Sharrkan, Spartos, Pisti, Ja’far, even Judal despite all expectations, they all made it! He had to be chipper!

Masrur made Aladdin jump when he pondered aloud, in his deep but gentle voice, “It will be strange without them.”

The crowd, which had been holding up the line to enter the building, and the reason why the group of three had taken shelter underneath the fig tree, had finally started to bustle in the door.

“Let’s get good seats! Com’n!” Aladdin jumped to his feet, hand on his turban to keep it from coming off. The school policy didn’t allow hats in school, but he’d made an argument that it was for religious reasons (partly a white lie, partly the truth) and so they had no choice but to allow it. After all, it was a turban, not a hat, and the school board could go suck it.

Masrur and Morgiana followed him like silent guard dogs, and he remembered why he never spent much time alone with them. Whenever he’d spent time with Judal and his brother’s friends, he spent time with all of the crazy characters in a great, grand group. That way, there were no awkward silences that Aladdin couldn’t break. Aladdin was good at being social, but the Fanalis siblings were just special cases. No one was good at being social with a silent rock. Still, they were his friends, so he loved them a lot and tried his best!

The seats they actually did manage to acquire were fairly good, close up that the top ten students were fully visible in the front of their small gymnasium. The graduating class was about what one would expect on an American military base in southern Turkey. Some of the students were the children of refugees trying to get citizenship in any country, others were the sons and daughters of the stationed soldiers, and the rest had their own assorted reasons to be attending such an odd, small high school. No matter where everyone had come from, they all tried to live life out as normal as they could manage, and the makeshift graduation ceremony was one of the many ways they did so.

“Look! I can see Sinbad from here!” Aladdin pointed at the seat right in front, where his friend wore a multitude of cords around his neck, a medal, and his cap and gown in startling gold.

“It’s no surprise,” Morgiana smiled more widely this time, “We knew that he would be first in class. However, as both Valedictorian and senior class president, I believe another senior is going to be salutatorian.”

“Wow, Morgiana just spoke a lot!” Aladdin beamed, “I wonder who that’ll be? Ja’far? Ja’far was senior class treasurer, right?”

“Yes, Ja’far was—” The redheaded girl started.

Masrur interrupted her with a slow shake of his head, “The salutatorian is Alibaba Saluja.”

“Who?” Aladdin scratched his cheek, “He sounds kind of, um, familiar.”

“The transfer student from America,” Morgiana recalled.

Aladdin was hit with a sudden realization, “The one my brother hates!”

Judal had not been quiet about how much he detested the transfer student. ‘Saluja,’ Aladdin remembered his brother hissing and spitting about. The very Saluja that almost got Judal arrested twice. That one. Aladdin almost felt embarrassed just thinking about it. His brother was a delinquent, and he deserved getting caught whenever he was doing whatever bad thing it was that he was doing. It was just that somehow, out of everyone in the school’s population, Saluja was very good at catching Judal smoking illegal drugs in the bathroom or threatening to kill someone with a knife to their throat, and calling the police pronto.

Neither of those events had actually gotten Judal arrested, because Saluja hadn’t been able to provide any proof that it had happened in both times, but Aladdin knew that his brother had done both of those things. Eventually it had gotten to the boy-who-cried-wolf status, and the police didn’t listen to Saluja about finding Judal doing anything. Judal didn’t usually talk to Aladdin about what he was doing that was wrong, but a lot of times Aladdin heard anyway.

A lot of times, he’d been there when the police had dropped Judal off for whatever it was, telling him to keep a better eye on his older brother, and Aladdin had seen the outline of another figure in the cop car, getting escorted home. He’d known each time he shouldn’t protect Judal when he knew his brother was up to shenanigans, but he’d also known each time that his parents were military diplomats in a war-torn country and that Judal was the only family he’d seen in the last three years.

It would be fun to actually hear what Alibaba Saluja had to say.

“Aladdin, I’m sorry if this will be hard for you,” Morgiana’s kind brown eyes met his, and she didn’t hold his glance, looking away quickly, “Alibaba is a friend of mine, and he knows Judal is your only family and yet…”

“No, it’s fine, I’m not upset or holding a grudge or something!” Aladdin smiled down at the crowd, “I love Judal but he’s a lot of trouble you know. He shouldn’t do those things, but I’m scared that if I say something, he’ll leave me alone. I’m always angry when he comes back in a cop car but it’s never because he got caught, it’s because he can’t behave. I can’t believe he’s graduating… I would’ve thought he’d get himself put in a detention center.”

“He’s troublesome, but his grades were passable,” Masrur frowned.

“Haha, yeah!” Aladdin smiled, “Wow, look, it’s starting!”

The ceremony was indeed starting. The graduates stood up for the national anthem, of both Turkey and America, and they sat back down except for one figure at the very front in bright gold, and another, in the top ten, wearing the same color. Sinbad was going to make his speech second, according to the little purple agendas they had been given when they’d arrived.

Which meant that other figure was the figure that Aladdin had seen again and again in the cop cars in the last four months. It was only just now that Aladdin could see him more clearly. He was short standing next to Sinbad’s 6 foot something and it didn’t look like he had hair since it was the same brilliant gold under the gymnasium’s lithium bulb overhead lights as his cap. Aladdin was sitting too far away to truly see his face, just how he held himself. He held himself with a nervous sort of composure, nothing like Sinbad’s unwavering self confidence. But it didn’t make Aladdin feel sorry for him. Aladdin kind of admired him for it, because it was proof he was scared, and that he was there despite being scared. That Alibaba Saluja was brave.

The microphone adjusted to his height after a bit of fiddling, and Aladdin could hear a hesitant, “Hello everyone and welcome to the 2014 high school graduation ceremony of Balbadd High School.”

Alibaba adjusted his composure a bit, and Aladdin could see some confidence in him, “Usually the graduation is begun with a speech by your senior class president, and followed by the Valedictorian’s speech, but in this case, since they are the same person, we had to make a last minute call on who was going to be the salutatorian. I know that most of you don’t know me very well, or at all, but it’s an honor to let me stand in front of you like this. Our community here at Balbadd is a community I only joined in December. Most of us have not been here all four years. This is a military base, and we come and go quickly. Most of us, if asked, could not name a home town. Instinctively we refrain from connecting to others in fear of losing them, because we never stay and it never lasts. That’s why the feeling of community is important to us. Balbadd military base for most of us is a place we hesitate to call home, but for every one of us in these robes, in this room, it will always be a place we will remember. All of our important memories here will stick with us because we are here, today, on the first day of the rest of our lives.”

Aladdin had an odd sort of feeling, just hearing it. This person was four years ahead of him in age, far more than four inches taller, and they’d never even been within four meters of each other, and yet it felt like Aladdin should be there, cheering and supporting him. Like they’d known each other for far longer than four months, than four years, like he’d known this complete stranger for his entire life.

“This place has a community of strangers in each room and classmates that change every year, friends that we promise to write and never do, but oddly enough, in each of our hearts we learned from this place lessons that no teacher and no classroom could convey. The value of love and compassion, of hard work and confidence, of bravery and of understanding each other and embracing our differences; as we move on from here, those lessons will guide us. For everyone sitting here today, as you walk across the stage and grab your diploma that you wished for and cried for and broke yourself for, please think about how you will use those lessons in the future.”

Aladdin almost thought he was going to cry. It wasn’t because the speech moved him to tears, or something. He could barely hear the words over the ache in his chest and the pounding in his ears. The way Alibaba spoke, he sounded gentle, kindhearted, and it made something in Aladdin hurt. A feeling like he was homesick.

“Think about the person you want to be. Your past in Balbadd High School has shaped you, but your future is the unwritten chapter of your lives. While fate or destiny might play a hand in where things lead, you have the choice of the person you wish to be in the end. No matter where in the class you graduate, or where you are from, or the mistakes you have made, it’s your choice. As we come and go, as we remember this place and what it has taught us, we know as a fact that there is so much ahead of us from here. Congratulations, class of 2014!”

With that Alibaba stepped down from the podium, and Sinbad replaced him. It didn’t matter. Aladdin couldn’t stop staring at the golden haired salutatorian.

“Are you alright, Aladdin?” Morgiana reached out and shook his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” Aladdin wiped away the moisture from his eyes, “I’m fine, really, I swear; I’m, well, I’m feeling emotional, okay?”

“That’ll be you in four years,” Masrur nodded up to the front of the stage, “But you don’t plan on going to Balbadd High School.”

“Valedictorian?!” Aladdin squeaked, “No way, not as such a prestigious school as Magnostadtt! But I—” felt like he couldn’t leave here, not without talking to Alibaba Saluja. For some reason he felt like he had so much to say. How could he feel that way when he didn’t even know him? The feeling was confusing, somehow. It also felt like if he didn’t say something right now, he might lose sight of that person forever.

The rest of ceremony passed Aladdin in a daze. He felt guilty that not even Judal getting his diploma snapped him out of it, but… the feeling was unavoidable. He finally got his head cleared when Masrur patted him hard on the shoulder, and said that they were leaving to go find the graduates, who had left the gymnasium before any of the crowd was allowed to leave. The three of them trailed back outside, and for some reason the twilight sky was shocking to him, like it hadn’t been all that long that they’d been stuffed indoors.

And under the fig tree, in the same shade Morgiana, Masrur, and Aladdin had taken cover in earlier, was Alibaba Saluja with his other friends, laughing and cheering in a circle of brilliant bewildered smiles. Aladdin didn’t run over and join him just yet. He had things to talk to the rest of his friends about.

“Congrats, everyone!” Aladdin cheered, and he jumped for Yamuraiha because she was actually would hug him. And her chest was really soft, so her hugs were the best.

“Thank you, Aladdin,” Yamu stroked his hair a bit and let him stay attached to her side, “I wish we could all be at your graduation too. England, I can’t believe it! It’s so far away!”

“You’ve been saying that since I got accepted in March,” Aladdin whined, “I only knew about it because you used to go there!”

Yamu huffed, “I lived in England with my uncle for a few years while my parents were stationed, so it was unavoidable. You on the other hand are leaving on your own. Who’s going to handle Judal?”

Sinbad snickered, “Alibaba Saluja, obviously. Judal’s still angry at him.”

And there went that name again, Aladdin thought, and his eyes drifted back over to the fig tree. His hand clenched in the fabric of Yamu’s gown, “I want to talk to him.”

“That’s a serious face you’ve got there, Aladdin,” Ja’far touched the 8th grader’s shoulder lightly, “You should go. Whatever you think you might say, he’s a good person and won’t blame you for it. There’s a reason he was voted salutatorian.”

“Thanks, big brother Ja’far!” Aladdin gave him a signature smile and composed himself somewhat. Ja’far was one of the few he actually called big brother besides his actual brother, and it was because Ja’far was the type of person who always knew what to say and how to comfort. If any group of friends had to have a sort of mother figure, then Ja’far was that figure. But the white-blond didn’t allow anyone to call him mom, so Aladdin got away with big brother instead.

Ja’far was right about most things, so Aladdin figured he was right about Alibaba Saluja, too.

“I’ll be right back,” Aladdin promised, before he ran off towards the fig tree. He felt like he was going to have a long-awaited conversation.

The sight of Alibaba Saluja up close stopped him in his tracks. He had a dejected sort of pout on his face, and one of his friends had his arm slung over the blonde’s shoulder. It was easy enough to see they were teasing him about something.

When their eyes met, it was like the world stopped.

Alibaba said something to his friends, because they remained behind under the fig tree while he walked over to Aladdin, and Aladdin found his feet moving on their own until they were standing face to face.

Aladdin resisted the urge to say something stupid, like ‘hi,’ or ‘I sound crazy even to myself but it feels like I’ve known you for forever, in a million different worlds.’

“Hi,” Alibaba said for him, “You’re Aladdin Magim, right? Judal’s younger brother?”

Aladdin nodded, “Yes!”

Alibaba’s smile was like the sun, even if he was avoiding meeting his eyes, “I know I sound kind of crazy, even to myself, but it feels like we met a long time ago. As if, In this world, we should’ve met sooner, but didn’t… I’m sorry, I’m not making any sense—”

“No!” Aladdin laughed, feeling so relieved he thought he might cry, holding his hand out, “I feel the same.”

The warm hand in his felt like coming home.

* * *

 

“Your order, ma’am,” Alibaba smiled and handed over the heated thermos of Starbucks cappuccino to the gravity field that would carry it. The woman who had ordered, as he had called her, ma’am, was not actually going to touch him. He was in the lower class, and his hands were not fit to touch hers when a gravity field could do that instead. And like most feelings, the way she dismissed him felt like he was dirty and unfit.

Not too dirty and unfit to make her coffee, evidently.

The slight rocking motion back and forth of the ship meant that they had entered a planet’s docking port, and that the ferry ride was almost over for everyone getting off on Balbadd. Alibaba wanted to get off here somewhat, but he was a worker, and that meant no going home until everyone had gotten off the ship, and this hadn’t been an empty ferry for the last 20 years. Of course, Alibaba only could guarantee the last four and a half years, seeing as he was barely twenty years old himself. But the workers were allowed to chat, and chat they did.

Gossip was the seedy stream that kept everyone sane onboard the Ferry ship 20657G. The lack of stops and the amount of sheer galactic space travel was grueling on any worker. Alibaba was no old-timer and he could say he’d survived three trips from Kou all the way to Sindria and back. That was thirty three hundred thousand light years in four years, and he’d never even been able to get off.

The next customer was a friend of his, and also why the ship was so heavily guarded. Kougyoku and her brothers were traveling back home to Kou, and that meant a very long trip.

“Alibaba! She smiled at him and fluttered her eyelashes, “Can you believe it? We’re almost home!”

“You’re almost home,” he corrected gently.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way!” Kougyoku pouted, and with that pout, a little blue woman jumped up on her shoulder. Vinea, Alibaba recalled, and he frowned. It was strange to see her proof of royalty so clearly on her shoulder. Only those with Djinn, or blue genies, were of royal blood and meant to rule.

It had been drilled into Alibaba his whole life not to let anyone see Amon.  They’d kill him. Balbadd belonged to the Kou world-wide conglomerate now and they weren’t kind to royal prisoners of war. He’d been lucky they’d passed him off as a palace servant and stuck him on the ferry ship as a coffee maker, which wasn’t really a bad situation all things considered. Alibaba didn’t like the thought of a million lasers frying his brain in his skull. And that fate could be avoided easily, so long as no one ever saw Amon.

Unlike Vinea, who was female and gorgeous by most standards, Alibaba’s Amon was stout, fat, and ate a lot, with a big pot belly, stretched out earlobes, and a tummy ring. He didn’t fancy being proud of his Djinn much at all, considering most other genies were in animal shapes and actually helpful. Alibaba explained away his lack of one by telling everyone his was a worm, and it lived in the potted plant in his room. Amon was very offended to be called a worm, but he put up with it because otherwise, Alibaba was as good as dead.

“So how about a Mocha latte, my dearest friend?” Kougyoku lifted Vinea onto her hand and smiled at her, laughing at some inside joke between them.

“Don’t exaggerate like that, Princess,” Alibaba poured the ready made Mocha into the cup and squirted whipped foam on it.

‘What, exaggerate? I would never! You taught me how to make flower crowns and that sealed the deal,” Kougyoku frowned as she saw her step-half brother approach her from behind, standing as if they were customers in a line and not very close family, “Hakuryuu, I thought you didn’t like coffee?”

“I don’t,” he confessed as if confessing a great sin, “But the company is nice.”

He’s here for Morgiana, Alibaba realized quickly. It’s too bad for him, considering they’ll never be able to be together. And also because her shift starts an hour from now, so he’s wasting his precious royal time.

“I can make tea,” Alibaba offered, handing off the Mocha to Kougyoku’s gravity field. Unlike the woman before, if Alibaba even so much as tried to touch the princess, his hand would get sliced off in punishment. Only her future husband got that pleasure.  At one time, it might've been him.  There had been talk of an engagement between one of the princes of Balbadd and a princess of Kou, but that was before Balbadd was subjugated.

The boat rocked particularly hard, and for some reason, even though Alibaba knew it was probably only them docking, Kougyoku and Hakuryuu looked concerned enough that Hakuryuu had taken a drink of her mocha without realizing what it was.

"It’s just us docking at Balbadd. There’s no reason to look panicked like that!” Alibaba laughed, heating up the water for the tea.

“No, it’s not that,” Kougyoku pocketed Vinea and looked towards the entrance to the main lobby.

Hakuryuu placed the mocha down on the counter and furrowed his elegant brow, lowering his voice, “Didn’t you know? Balbadd is half and hour away at light speed. We’re not docking, and there shouldn’t be an asteroid belt in this area.”

They never told the plebeians that sort of information, Alibaba thought with a shake of his head. All he needed to know was how to run a coffee shop, according to the empire; any such knowledge of where he was or what the universe was like would just distract him from his sole purpose. Still, he could understand Hakuryuu’s warning. If they weren’t docking and there was no asteroid belt, then it was pirates.

There had been extra security because of how important the Kou royalty was, and even bodyguards with huge tiger genies strolled the hallways and creeped the ever-loving fuck out him late at night with the growling.

Amon squirmed in Alibaba’s breast pocket, underneath his uniform jumpsuit. This wasn’t going to be good at all.

A ear-shatteringly loud siren blasted through the air of the space ship, and Kougyoku gave him one last forlorn look, “Be careful, you big baby.”

The two royals left the lobby with a style that could not be replicated, a sort of panicked but dignified shuffle. There wasn’t much hope for Alibaba going anywhere. He was trapped behind the coffee shop counter until Morgiana came to relieve him of his shift. All he could do was wait and hope that the walls didn’t get any holes that threatened to suck him out into deep space, if he survived passing the light screen gravity barrier that kept him locked behind the counter.

The pirates had better not get him killed. Alibaba had plans. Tentative plans that probably would not work, but plans of great importance that included taking back his country and getting a cute girlfriend. Oh yeah, there were great things ahead of him and dying on this godforsaken ferry was not one of those things.

It didn't take long before the ship rocked with even more turbulence, and, the pirates, because it was the best way to give him a heart attack, smashed their ship right into the hull of the lobby, and through the meter thick steel-chrome frame with no issues. The sight of the pirate ship, intruding into the familiar lobby prison, looked like one of those paintings from ancient earth with the melting clocks. There was something that very much, utterly, did not belong.

Alibaba placed his hand in front of Amon, shielding his Djinn from any debris, and tried his best to watch at the pirate doors opened. They slid apart slowly, like in the movies where it was made to look dramatic, and the air suctioned to readjust the levels in both ships. Soon it wouldn’t be safe for him where he was, but he couldn’t leave and nothing was going right.

The first pirate, clad in a blue waistcoat with a light-screen gravity knife strapped to his side and a bright red ruby dangling from his hat, who stepped out was… short. Like, midget, small child short. And upon further investigation, it was because the pirate, who held a staff in his hand and had long, dark blue hair, was actually a small child.

Alibaba kneeled over laughing, his hand banging on the counter, “Okay, sorry, you are the least fearsome pirate I have ever seen in the history of ever. What are you, like twelve?”

The pirate bonked him over the head with his staff, and pouted, “I’m thirteen, you meanie!”

“That’s not any better!” Alibaba laughed so hard he snorted, “I was like, there’s gonna be someone with a freaking hook for a hand and he’ll be twenty feet tall, with all these badass scars, and he’ll try and kill me first off, telling me how I’m worthless scum, and instead there’s this tiny little shrimp and—”

Alibaba stopped laughing when he saw the giant, humongous, monstrous blue Djinn towering over the tiny pirate.

“I stand corrected,” he said, some actual fear creeping into his voice, “Want some Starbucks coffee?”

The kid walked up to the counter and his intense blue eyes met Alibaba's golden ones, “Actually I want to kidnap the Kou royalty and force them to destroy The Machine that keeps people like you trapped in slavery, but if you help with that, I’ll take some coffee!”

Alibaba looked down at the kid, and then back up to his Djinn, and then back down to the kid.

The kid pirate was dead serious.

Alibaba gulped, “I accept your offer, but I’m gonna throw in my own terms. You can’t hurt any of them, okay?”

“Pinky Promise?” The kid held out his pinky and beamed, “I’m Aladdin, by the by.”

“Oh lord, what I have done?” Alibaba held out his pinky, “I’m Alibaba. And I’ll punch you if you get us killed. Also hit that button on the side so I can come out from behind the counter.”

“Done,” Aladdin shook his pinky vigorously, like he’d just put his hand on a washing machine. It was the start to a very strange and beautiful new friendship.

* * *

Morgiana shook him awake, “Happy 18th birthday, Alibaba.”

He blinked, before jolting upright, “You’re kidding, I am not 18! It’s a lie!”

She looked very unimpressed by him, in all the ways. Alibaba grimaced. She had every right to feel that way, considering he’d fallen asleep on her lap a few hours before after getting spectacularly drunk and mumbling about mushroom island. She was probably out to get him a therapist, all things considered.

“Alibaba, it’s your birthday today. That’s why we threw you that party last night. In which, might I recall, you threw glitter on Sinbad and told him he looked like Edward Cullen’s penis, tried to sacrifice Kougyoku with a cardboard pitchfork, sent drunk texts to Aladdin deeply concerned about his magical flying turban, told me to marry you, and almost killed yourself no less than twenty eight times.”

Oh, yes. She was pissed.

He gulped, “It’s not my fault I wanted to forget what was going to happen today.”

Morgiana crossed her arms and gave him the sternest look she could muster, which made lesser men pee their pants. As it was, Alibaba wanted to make a bathroom run before he joined the ranks of lesser men.

“You shouldn’t be scared of finding a soulmate. Hakuryuu—”

“Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! No more talking! I’m done!” Alibaba lurched forward a bit too fast, and his hangover promptly punched him in the face. He returned to leaning against Morgiana’s comfortable shoulder, and she petted his head a few times until he stopped feeling nauseated.

“Hakuryuu survived his 18th birthday with little hassle,” Morgiana said anyway, because she knew how to push his buttons well enough to make him very upset with life, and she was a cruel, cruel mistress.

“He cried for days when you told him you didn’t know if you could return his feelings until your soulmate mark showed up!” Alibaba pointed out, his voice taking on a bit of a whine.

“Hakuryuu might have overdone it a bit with me, I admit,” she smiled down at him.

“What if I get someone I know too, and I get rejected like I get rejected by everyone?!” the blond whimpered, keeping his head against her shoulder because he liked the feeling of hands in his hair. He’d had a crush on her once. When Hakuryuu had seen the name Morgiana written on his arm in crimson ink, like blood, he’d rushed to confess despite knowing full well that Alibaba liked her too. Alibaba had been upset right up until the moment she’d told him to suck it up and get over it, because even if she didn’t have romantic feelings for either of them, she would let her soulmate mark decide the one that was right for her. The drama wore down when Hakuryuu apologized for being so sudden, and also for assuming right away that his Morgiana had to be her, and not some other Morgiana out there. Alibaba’s crush had also started fading when Morgiana began returning Hakuryuu’s affections bit by bit, so there went that.

He’d been dreading his own soulmate mark since Cassim. Cassim had been a weird one, because his soulmate mark had shown up early, and no one had known why until it was too late. Soulmate marks only show up early if the person who gets them won’t live to be 18, and they only show up when that person meets their soulmate.

Cassim’s had said Alibaba.

Alibaba hoped to any being out there, fate, what have you, that his did not say Cassim. Cassim was dead, and Alibaba was done with being alone and feeling ostracized from everything because he was different, because he had lived a life knowing his best friend would die too soon. He was scared to death that when it showed up today, and it could show up anywhere, anytime, on his body, that it would say Cassim, and he’d just know that no matter who else he tried to find out there, it’d never end up alright. People who weren’t soulmates were rarely happy together as more than friends.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Morgiana slapped the side of his head, “And no, it’s not happening.”

“What am I thinking?” He groaned, hangover making his skull ache.

“That I’ll let you lie here for a bit more if you look pitiful.”

“Aw, Mor—”

“No.”

“Please?”

“I have no pity. You brought this on yourself. Do you want me to call Aladdin?” Morgiana shifted her legs, and Alibaba knew his happiness was coming to an end. He really was going to have to get up and face today. He wanted to ignore it.

Alibaba thought of Aladdin’s naïve, bright smile, and he closed his eyes, “Yeah. Can you?”

“I have a working cell phone,” Morgiana said in her typical deadpan, and finally forced them both to their feet.

Alibaba leaned heavily on her side as they made their way to the kitchen. He wanted water, and perhaps one of those punching gloves to punch fate in the face. Who even thought of soulmate marks in the first place? They were stupid. And way too romanticized. Not all soulmates were romantic soulmates.

As proved by Cassim.

Alibaba really had to stop thinking about him. It had been five years.

Morgiana prompted him with a glass of water and some white pills that might’ve been Tylenol or aspirin. At this point Alibaba was too hung-over to care.

“You are a goddess in human flesh,” Alibaba told her, very much seriously, “Hakuryuu better kiss the ground you walk on if you ever decide to date that guy.”

Morgiana gave him her unimpressed look, “I’ll go call Aladdin.”

Alibaba nodded, his head slumping backwards. Aladdin hadn’t been at their party last night, mostly because of the rampant drinking but also because Judal was there, and Judal tended to get very strange as he got very drunk, and when he did, he called Aladdin, ‘chibi’ while trying to play pin the tail on the donkey with Aladdin as the donkey, and it just had never gone well before. In fact, Alibaba didn’t tend to like Judal around at all either, but Kougyoku, who was Alibaba’s closest friend that was a girl, after Morgiana, was completed enamored with him and took him everywhere, and Alibaba wanted Kougyoku around enough to deal with Judal. He couldn’t ask the same of Aladdin though, and he hadn’t wanted the 16 year old to see him getting sloshed out of his mind. From what he’d heard (Alibaba certainly didn’t remember anything) that party had not been for innocent 16 year olds.

He’d promised to make it up to Aladdin by having the three of them go out today, and spend time together. Knowing Aladdin, they’d probably have to go shopping, because Aladdin always forgot to buy presents for people. He’d shown up at Alibaba’s 10th birthday party with half a sock and a box of used Legos. Alibaba had forgiven him only because he was 8, and for some reason he’d never been able to stay mad at Aladdin for anything.

The water helped his hangover enough that he went rummaging in his fridge for food. There looked to be a half-eaten subway sandwich in there, which would probably help, but it also looked like it was corned beef, which Alibaba detested with all his soul.

Pulling it out, he sniffed at it, “Mor? Whose sandwich is this?”

She didn’t reply, so she was probably already on the phone with Aladdin. Oh well, the sandwich, corned beef or no, was his now. He felt too lazy to actually make anything else, and he didn’t have any milk so there went the option of cereal.

Suffering swallowing the thing down his throat, he waltzed back over to where Morgiana was talking on her phone, and he waited while she gave him that stern look again. He withstood it with minimal karmic impact, which was a good thing in his book.

She hung up after a few ‘hm’ and ‘yes, I see’s and Alibaba waited for her to explain what new intelligence she had gathered.

“Aladdin said that he need to go shopping first, and for us to meet him at the mall. Then he wants to go to the park. Apparently there’s a surprise there.”

“A surprise?” Alibaba grinned, “That’s specific. It’s okay, I like the park. It has ducks.”

She gave him a look.

“It’s geese that are my mortal enemies, not ducks,” He protested, remembering exactly what she was. Those had been geese. Those had been evil, despicable geese.

He’d liked those pants but alas.

“I see. Let’s get ready to go, then,” She smiled, “And don’t worry about your mark. You won’t even notice when it shows up. In fact, in most likelihood, nobody will.”

Right, because he’d be wearing clothes over most of his body. Alibaba took a deep breath, “Okay, right.”

He retreated into the bathroom with a pair of clean clothes, and he placed them on top of the closed toilet seat. Teeth brushing was very much required because corned beef was nasty and should be fed to geese only, and so his morning routine went pretty much the same as it always did.

Until he took his shirt off.

Red letters stared at him, backwards in the mirror but still clear, still readable, and he almost screamed.

He’d only been 18 for a few hours but it was enough.

“Morgiana!” He shrieked, opening the door to the bathroom and racing down the hallway until he found her in the kitchen, making scrambled eggs.

“I’m busy, Ali—” Her eyes caught up with her mouth, and she saw exactly what he had only a few minutes earlier. They stared at each other quietly, Alibaba’s internal screaming keeping his mouth shut and her shock sealing hers, until she returned to scrambling the eggs like nothing had happened, “Well, that was fast.”

“Please tell me it doesn’t say what I think it says!” Alibaba said, the panic and shock making his entire body shake, his entire world rock back and forth. Was it true? Was he delusional? He needed a second opinion like he needed air.

“Alibaba, it showed up just like you knew it would. Everyone is surprised to see it,” She turned off the stove as she finished the eggs, and she reached up to grab a plate from the cabinet to serve them on, “The romance novels are dramatic but fake.”

“Well there goes all my expectations for life,” Alibaba stared down, reading the red scribbles just below his navel, “I had been reading those novels in hopes of finding my own true love through a dramatically revealed soulmate mark that would change my life forever.”

“Sarcasm, not appreciated,” Morgiana snorted, placing the eggs on the counter and facing him, “Remember Hakuryuu and I. I understand what you’re going to want to do, but please, it’s not like that name belongs to only one person in this world.”

“You mean, commit a dramatic suicide because I’m doomed to be forever without you, my one true love?” He was slowly returning to a more rational state of mind, but the panic and shock hadn’t left. It was like he didn’t truly believe what had happened yet. It seemed unreal, somehow, like fate had played a shitty joke on him.

“Alibaba,” she growled, and he could read in her face that he’d better start being serious or she’d fuck him up.

“Please, Morgiana, if you really are one of my closest, dearest friends,” He took a deep breath, “Tell me my soulmate mark doesn’t say Aladdin.”

Morgiana shook her head, “I don’t believe in lying.”

“You know the number of times I’ve told him he’s like a younger brother to me? Yeah, I don’t even know how many! I mean—” it’s better than if it had said Cassim, but he’d always known deep in his heart that he’d thought it’d be Cassim. Cassim’s soulmate had been him, after all, he’d known it. That was why when they’d met for the first time and Cassim’s soulmate mark had shown up on his palm, that their parents had forced them to be together all the time, even when they hadn’t wanted to see each other at all. That was why he’d spent 6 years of his life chasing after the boy who did everything reckless because he’d known he’d die young. He’d never even thought for even a moment, not truly, that his mark would say anything else.

He’d never even dreamed it might say Aladdin, but that’s what it said. The red didn’t lie, not ever.

“It might be another Aladdin, you don’t know yet. You won’t know until Aladdin turns 18 himself,” Morgiana gave him a look, “Don’t let him see it. Don’t tell him what it says.”

Alibaba swallowed past the lump in his throat, “Yes ma’am.”

“Now go take a shower because you smell.”

“Thanks, love you lots,” Alibaba stuck his tongue out at her, and when she flung a fork at him, he barely dodged on his way back to the bathroom.

Still, the knowledge of the mark seemed unreal.

Aladdin. It was like his heart was beating out that rhythm now. A-lad-din. Aladdin.

And like Morgiana predicted, his face burned with a bright red blush at the thought of it being their Aladdin, with the big bright smiles, with the weird quirky habits, who befriended everyone so easily, with the best heart anyone could ask for, who held his hand and stroked his hair when he’d lost Cassim and felt like his world was ending.

He’d thought he’d have to be alone forever. Alibaba wasn’t used to the optimism of thinking there was someone out there for him.

All things said and done, it had taken the two of them another hour to actually get to the mall. Morgiana didn’t take very long to get ready to go, but Alibaba had. The worst thing was that he knew that he’d react this way at the possibility of meeting Aladdin when his soul mate mark said that name so bright and obviously.

The mall thing went horribly. Alibaba got a new pair of gages, gold-plated hoops with little balls at the center, as his present from Aladdin, and for some reason unlike most gifts, he had almost imploded at the sight of them.

“Happy birthday, Alibaba!” Aladdin beamed, elbowing him in the side as they left, “Hey, is your face okay?”

His face was not okay. It was as red as Rudolph’s nose, as red as the fiery skin of Satan’s buttocks. It was the red of shameful longing for a 16 year old whose name just happened to match Alibaba’s new, very much permanent, mark.

Morgiana gave him that stern look, and this time, Alibaba laughed nervously and said, “I think I need to use the bathroom, be right back,” before running for the hills.

He almost hyperventilated in the bathroom, and it had been actually not the worst situation he’d gone through today because he couldn’t possibly embarrass himself any more with all the stupid he’d already done.

The gold gages lay heavy in his pocket, and once he’d finished pulling up his shirt to stare at the Aladdin written right under his belly button, he knew he was going to put them on. There was no question.

“Just got that today, huh?” A stranger remarked, a smirk on his face as he approached the sink next to his.

Alibaba looked up, “Oh. Yeah, it’s my 18th birthday.”

“It’s weird, you think you know how things are gonna end up. I don’t know who mine is yet,” The stranger had dark skin and bleached white hair that was a spiked up mess, and he flashed his teeth with every word he spoke, “But judging by your face, you do.”

“I don’t know yet,” Alibaba felt his face darken in color, “But I know someone with the name.”

The man shrugged, “Are they 18 yet?”

“No, not yet. For me to know for certain, I have to wait two years until then,” Alibaba looked back at the gages in his ears, and he smiled the stupidest, dopiest smile he’d ever disgraced his face with in the last 18 years of his life, “I’ll be the luckiest man on earth if it’s my name on their skin.”

“Sounds like you found them, kid. Good luck,” The man winked, and turned off the sink as he finished washing his hands, “Tell me if you ever see a Yamuraiha that Sharrkan’s looking for them, okay? I’m searching far and wide.”

“Will do,” Alibaba nodded, and he went back to staring at the glint of gold in his ears. Good luck, huh. Aladdin and Morgiana were waiting for him, he couldn’t hole up in here forever.

He left the bathroom with an almost bewildered expression, and the thought crossed his mind that he was still drunk off his socks and that this was all a very painfully embarrassing dream. God, even in dreams corned beef tasted like shit. He pinched his arm, and then remembered that hangovers weren’t painful in dreams. He was good and sober and 18 and not doomed to a life forever alone.

“You took forever,” Morgiana informed him, “Aladdin wanted to go get you something for constipation.”

“You wanted to do what?!” Alibaba turned on the shortest one amongst them, playfully hurt, his hands shaking Aladdin’s shoulders back and forth in vigorous drama, “I thought you were on my side, Aladdin! I thought we were friends!”

“Alibaba-aaa-aaa-aaaaaa!” Aladdin’s voice didn’t stay steady when he was on the verge of getting whiplash, and his eyes were spinning from of the force. Alibaba took pity and stopped shaking him, but for some reason his hands didn’t want to move. They liked Aladdin’s shoulders.

Morgiana grabbed him by the waist, picked him up bridal style out of nowhere, and dragged him off towards the exit, “We’re going to the park now.”

Alibaba kicked his feet in the air aimlessly, “It’s always impressive that you can carry me like this, you beast.”

She squeezed him so tight his lungs constricted.

“I mean, you beautiful, gorgeous woman!” Alibaba patted her arm hard to get her to loosen up.

“Better,” she smirked, and turned back to look at Aladdin, who was staring straight at them, completely dumbstruck.

“What?” Alibaba asked, squirming to get Morgiana to put him down.

Aladdin blinked, “Your shirt.”

Alibaba looked down at his shirt.

Oh.

 _Shit_.

When Morgiana had heaved him up into her arms, it’d slid up the fraction of a bit that was needed to see the red on the strip of skin between his pants and the hem. The red that said Aladdin. She had picked him up because he’d been acting weirdly, so she could get him away from Aladdin, but they’d both forgotten that shirts tend to get in disarray when you sweep someone’s feet out from under them.

Morgiana dropped him like a hot potato straight out of boiling water, and Alibaba had his shirt fixed in 0.05 seconds within realizing exactly what Aladdin meant by “Your shirt.”

“Did you read it?” Morgiana asked, her voice holding an almost deadly sort of tone.

“No, it was the wrong angle, but I saw the red!” Aladdin beamed, “What does it say, I’m so curious! I can’t wait to find out mine, it seems like 18 is forever from now.”

Alibaba almost melted into a puddle of relieved goo. He hadn’t seen. Which was good, because now Alibaba didn’t have to pull a Hakuryuu and cry for a couple days.

“You know these things, they’re not important,” Alibaba held the hem of his shirt down, just in case, “Weren’t we going to the park?”

Aladdin pouted, “Be that way.”

The youngest of them led the way, and as they walked, the blond just knew that Morgiana’s elbow was hitting him in the side painfully on purpose.

“It’s not my fault he almost saw!” Alibaba hissed under his breath, trying to shield himself from the almighty weapon of mass destruction, her elbow.

Morgiana continued to be unimpressed with him, “We’re not going swimming together for the next two years.”

Right, hard to swim with friends when taking off your shirt meant letting the whole world see your soulmate mark.

“I could wear a diving suit-like thing!” He sighed, knowing that they really weren’t going swimming for the next two years, because Alibaba was broke and Aladdin would get suspicious.

Morgiana looked at their trailblazer, a good meter ahead of them, and smiled gently, “It will be strange to hide it, but I’m worried that Aladdin loves too much and too easily to understand why he should wait to see if it is mere coincidence or fate.”

“You don’t think he’s gonna reject me,” Alibaba realized, “You think he’s gonna say yes, and then in two years his’ll say Velma or Hubert or Sally or what’s-their-face with the mohawk who lives down the street or whatever and we’ll both feel awful.”

“Yes,” She sighed, “But not the genderless mohawk miracle human. They're already 23 and their mark says Elizabeth.”

“Maybe it’s really a tattoo! They probably have tons of tattoos like that. Like, another one that says Amanda,” Alibaba scrunched up his nose, “or one that says, ‘love you forever mommy’ and ‘big package down south’.”

Morgiana laughed through her nose and it came out as a cough-like snort, “Really? Where’s that one?”

“I think it’s a tramp stamp.”

It was just about then that the three of them actually had made it to the park, and it wasn’t Alibaba’s day by any stretch of fate in any way, shape, form, time period, or universe, because apparently today in the park was the day where they had dunking booths, a slip-and-slide, water balloon and water gun fights, and also a poorly advertised watermelon eating contest, which was clearly the reason why Aladdin had been so determined to go. One did not get between Aladdin and watermelons.

Aladdin jumped up and down and the balls of his feet, and his voice shot up an octave in excitement, “Come on, com’n, com’n, com’n! Did you see it! It’s so great! Oh my gosh, you guys didn’t know to bring your swimsuits but it’s okay, you can just get wet in what you’re already wearing! Oh, but Morgiana—”

“It’s not white, I should be fine,” Morgiana smiled, and motioned down at her red graphic t-shirt with stylized tigers on it.

However, Alibaba’s shirt was white. Very white. Not even off white, it was whiter than yogurt or off brand vanilla ice cream that didn’t even bother to aim for cream yellow. It was alabaster, ivory, and like most things white and unwanted, making Alibaba the most miserable person alive.

He sniffled. The universe hated him. It was a well known, researched, documented fact. There had been studies, and each scientist returned with a verdict of “Oh yes, Alibaba Saluja is hated utmost by almost every sentient being, including whatever rules the universe.” One had just shook his crazy white-haired head and after he’d retracted his weird tongue back into his mouth, said, “Poor kid is completely hopeless.”

His shirt was white, and Aladdin had just attached their hands together and was dragging him off towards the dunking booth. His life was flashing before his eyes. This was the end.

“Alibaba should go first! If I can hit the platform hard enough, you’ll drop and get soaked! Isn’t that fun? Ooooh! Morgiana, you might need to help me! I’m not that tough.”

Alibaba shook his head, giving Morgiana a deer-in-the-headlights look of sheer, horrified, heart-wrenching, mind twisting and palpitating terror. She returned the look as much as her face would manage, seeing as her face had pulled one of those if-you-don’t-smile-enough-your-face-will-freeze-that-way things that prevented her from having a lot of expression. For Morgiana, it was a pretty good look of fear. She had nothing on him though.

Alibaba had been forced up a ladder to sit on a precarious platform, and his knees kept knocking together with nervousness. He was getting soaked no matter what at this point. That fate was unavoidable. But now his fear was that his shirt would be thin enough that Aladdin would be able to read his name through it.

The fabric felt pretty thick, for a cheap $5 thing he picked up at the Thrift store. He had to believe in it. The fabric could do it, it had to! Alibaba was desperate in a way few men are desperate. He’d iron the shirt everyday in thanks if it just withstood this trial by fire (or rather water). He’d make it a goddamn shrine. He would wear a short skirt and twerk until his butt got sore if his shirt needed the cheerleading to withstand the soak.

Aladdin just flat out jumped on the platform, instead of punching it, and Alibaba was doomed, falling and drowning in lukewarm dunk tank water, completely and utterly submerged.

Alibaba didn’t know if he was crying or if it was just the water dripping from his face when he dragged his bedraggled form out of the water and back to his friends.

His shirt hadn’t withstood the soak. It was stuck to his skin like a goat-head to foam flip-flops, and it was completely see through.

So much for ironing. And life. Alibaba sort of stared at Aladdin, upset at the utter betrayal of his unknowing friend, who would know, in about the three seconds it’d take to read what was oh-so-clear on his skin.

They sort of stared at each other, brown eyes meeting black, and Alibaba couldn’t stop the pounding of his heart as he waited for Aladdin to say something, anything, about his soulmate mark. If his eyes just traveled downward, just a bit, then he’d see. Hakuryuu and Morgiana had survived it with minimal impact to their friendship. So logically shouldn’t Aladdin be the same? All Alibaba had to go was say something like Morgiana had, like, we’ll wait until yours shows up and then we’ll know, nobody is assuming anything, there are tons of Aladdin’s in the world, something or anything at all.

All it took was for Aladdin to read it, and the suspense would end.

“Next is my turn!” Aladdin had not bothered to stick around and read it. He was already dashing up the ladder, placing himself where his friend had been only minutes before.

“I’m dunking that little twerp until he drowns,” Alibaba grouched, heading over to the platform.

It was like oh so much cold sweet revenge as Aladdin shrieked and fell into the water with flailing arms.

* * *

A lot of towns smelt like wet dog in the rain when they were as dusty as this place. Aladdin would know, seeing as he’d been to a lot of towns as dusty as this. And a lot of towns that weren’t as dusty. Really, he wasn’t exactly into exploring ghost towns, but there was nothing he could do about it when every other paranormal investigator worth their ilk had gone to every other possibly haunted place.

The story of this place was simple. It had been a booming town on Route 66 that had picked up a bunch of tourism and activity back in the 60’s, but soon after the place had a problem with murders. The tourists got killed in their motel beds, and the citizens all moved away in fear that they‘d be next. The killer was found and put down, but no one returned after the affair to repopulate the place. It didn’t take long for the entire place to go from booming to completely dead.

Of course with a history like that, everyone said it was haunted.

Aladdin full well believed in ghosts. It’d be stupid not to, seeing the things he’d seen. But it was also hard to believe some of the rumors about this town. That was probably why he was the only paranormal investigator coming to this place to see if it was local kids screwing around with the people who drove past or if there were everything from flickering lights and alien abductions going on.

None of the rumors were coordinated. If there was a ghost, it would be a ghost of someone murdered here, most likely. Aladdin didn’t believe that there’d be the ghosts of a cowboy, an Arabian prince, a blue-skinned shirtless woman with nipple piercings, an alien life-form, and a large, black hulking flying demonic shape, all in the same town. Actually he was betting on local kids. They were out for a little fun, and what was better than scaring tourists going for a ‘old-style route 66’ tour of America?

Aladdin had been once one of those kids. He’d played pranks on everyone so that they’d believe there really was a ghost in the old cemetery, and he knew there was one! He’d spent days trying to prove it, but no one saw Ugo but himself. Ugo eventually told him, through many hours of Ouija boards and pendulum scrying, that Aladdin was special, and he could see things no one else could. He could help people, both spirits and the people they haunted, because he was one of few that could see this stuff called Rukh. The blood of magicians had thinned, until they had nothing to them but the ability to see large groups of Rukh, Ugo had explained, and they could give that Rukh orders. Such as, orders to leave.

Aladdin had gotten good at giving orders. He’d only been a paranormal investigator for two years, and even though it was a legitimate job respected by the government, he rarely got hired. 18 year old high school drop-outs rarely got hired to do anything but flip burgers. Aladdin might live off less charity if he did flip burgers, but he had the special talents to do this, and the government sent him a monthly stipend because of his parent’s “exemplary service“, so he was set for life. He loved his job anyway. And if there really was anything stuck in this town unable to return to the great flow of Rukh, he’d help them out just like he’d helped Ugo. It’d put his mind at ease, at least.

Aladdin smiled as the lights in the gas station flickered on, on their own. There was a buzzing sort of sound in the air, and he hated to admit he sort of liked the fear factor. Nothing spiritual could hurt him, after all, unlike the rest of everyone else who couldn‘t see the Rukh, so it was a free shot of adrenaline in his system, every time.

“Hello? I‘m a paranormal investigator, is anyone there?” He called, smiling as his heart pounded. Hopefully any stupid kids out for having fun would reply or get scared off.

There was no reply, just the lights turning themselves off. A blast of cold air rushed past him, and Aladdin suddenly understood.

There were no kids here. He could feel the Rukh, how they were reacting to his presence. This place really was haunted.

Aladdin tied his long braid up into a bun so it wouldn’t snag on any broken glass or nails sticking out of the wood of the buildings. The thing haunting this location wasn’t going to make it easy for him to find it, so he’d have to go searching.

The old motel was the best start, because he swore it was a murder victim unable to move on. The rest of the rumors made no sense, really. Alien abductions? Shirtless, blue, nipple-piercing ladies? Neither of those made much sense.

Aladdin started to hum as he opened the creaky door and stepped inside. A hot blast of air rushed past him, and the Rukh clamored about, making almost audible noises. Yes, he’d been right about the motel, but one thing bothered him. How come he hadn’t seen the Rukh gather into a precise shape yet?

The teachings of the Magnostadtt Academy of Paranormal Investigation explained a typical haunting as such:

  1. Seeing agitated Rukh
  2. Seeing or feelings unnatural occurrences
  3. The feeling of fear
  4. The appearance of an apparition



The first three signs were clear as day, so where was Aladdin’s apparition? Usually he tried to talk to the Rukh first, to find out their feelings and emotions about where they were. Rukh sometimes didn’t even need commands to scatter and rejoin the flow if Aladdin communicated with them first. He always tried that first, no matter the situation.

Sometimes the Rukh weren’t the typical white, they were black, and Aladdin knew Magnostadtt’s teachings, that if the Rukh were black, the investigator must leave and report to the government to quarantine the place. Black Rukh meant the ghost was cursing their fate, that they were violent and likely to hurt anything that moved. If black Rukh tried hard enough, they could even hurt investigators who were usually immune to the antics of the Rukh. Aladdin tried to talk to black Rukh the most, because if black Rukh was commanded to scatter, it would be destroyed, and would never rejoin the flow. Only white Rukh did that.

But he couldn’t talk to any Rukh if no apparition showed itself. The heavy amount of Rukh in the air couldn’t understand anything but commands. There had to be an apparition causing this, and Aladdin wasn’t leaving until he found it.

Another blast of air hit him from behind, and this time it was like steam or smoke. He blistered at the feeling of it on his bare skin. Aladdin stopped humming. Only black Rukh could hurt him like this.

“Hello?” the 18 year old frowned, rubbing at his smarting neck, “I can feel you there, you know! Please come out, we can talk.”

The sound of forlorn sobbing filled the room with eerie discord. It filtered away into the sound of complete silence, but Aladdin felt the feeling of terror build up in his chest until he wanted to run. No place had ever scared him this much. This ghost was strong, and very very hateful.

A lone white Rukh fluttered past him, and with it he heard the word, “waiting,” clear as if someone had whispered it into his ear.

“Okay,” Aladdin smiled, taking a deep breath, “I’m coming for you, okay? I’ll help you. I’ll find you.”

He took a step down the hallway, and he opened the door to each motel room, all conveniently unlocked. Every room was much the same, filled with broken beds, rotting blankets, and bugs crawling up the walls.

When he reached the end of the hallway, a feeling had build up in his chest. Suspense? Panic, fear, paranoia, what sort of feeling was it? He couldn’t tell, just that it was exerting pressure on him.

“Are you hiding from me?” Aladdin asked, in his most polite voice, “Please don’t. I can’t help you if I can’t see you.”

A scuffling noise came from behind him, and as he turned around, the pressure in him released.

There was his apparition.

It was a boy, about his age, if he had to guess, and his shirt was pulled down on one side to expose his shoulder. His arm after that joint was completely missing, and as the blood dripped to the floor, black Rukh scattered from the open gaping wound. Aladdin had seen enough gory wounds on apparitions that he wasn’t shocked, but every time it made him feel horribly sad inside.

The wound was what caught his eye first, because it was so obvious and red and stark against the rest of the boy, which had no color at all. Really, Aladdin had no right to be calling him a boy, considering the age he looked. Aladdin knew he was a fairly small person, short for his age. The apparition was taller than him by a head, and had toned muscles on his other arm, the one that was actually there. His face was okay, as far as faces go, and his hair stuck up with a weird point in the middle. It was his eyes that really scared Aladdin.

His eyes were dead in a way that most ghosts’ were not.

“You’re late…” the apparition mumbled, the Rukh pouring out of him in black waves. “I called for you so many times… you never came.”

Aladdin put on his best smile, “I’m not the one you’re waiting for. Can you tell me who it is? Maybe I can tell you where they are.”

The apparition looked him straight in the eye, and Aladdin’s heart thudded in his chest, bruising against his ribcage. When it opened it’s mouth to speak, black Rukh poured out with each word, “Aladdin… why are you late? I told myself…”

Aladdin took a step back, finally giving in to the terror that had been choking him, “How do you know my name? We’ve never met before!”

The black Rukh got thicker, and thicker, until he could feel their scalding hot wings against every bit of him.

“We weren’t supposed to meet in this world,” the apparition said, sounding spiteful and bitter, “It’s supposed to be black, s _oaked in black, EVERYTHING **BLACK!**_ ”

The sound of the scream only incited the Rukh to more violence.

“I don’t know what you’re saying!” Aladdin choked out, trying to look away from the all the darkness before him, “Please, who are you?!”

He could tell the Rukh to scatter, and destroy the apparition altogether. It’d stop his fear, but Aladdin never let fear control his actions. He was stronger than that.

Something seemed to calm down the figure in front of him, and with that the apparition’s black Rukh faded back into invisibility, gone without a trace of where it had been before. Whatever Aladdin had said, it had worked somehow.

“Alibaba Saluja,” the apparition said, sounding finally as if it was a normal spirit and not made of the darkest, evilest stuff on the planet.

Aladdin smiled, “It’s nice to meet you. Please tell me, how do you know my name?”

“It’s…” Alibaba looked at his arm, still dripping and bleeding black Rukh, “…complicated. You’ll understand too. When you die.”

“I won’t die for a long time, so you’ve got to tell me now,” Aladdin urged him, actually curious beyond belief, beyond the overwhelming fear.

Alibaba laughed, and all it sounded like was loneliness, “I missed you. With every breath, every heartbeat, it was all wrong to be in a world without you. I didn’t know how miserable I was until I died. That man, when he killed me, all I thought was that as long as I could stay here on this earth maybe I’d meet you someday.”

“You met me though,” Aladdin decided not to try and convince Alibaba that he was thinking of someone else. It hadn’t turned out well last time, had only made it all worse.

The edge returned to Alibaba’s voice, “I met you though. Isn’t it too ** _late?_** Isn’t this a world gone _**wrong?** _ Isn’t there **_NOTHING BUT DARKNESS?_** If this is ** _FATE_** then I _ **don’t WANT IT!!**_ ”

The black Rukh flew around them like a tornado and the walls of the motel crumbled from each slice of their wings, melted with each collision, and Aladdin felt his own blood drip from the millions of cuts that had happened so fast he hadn’t noticed them hurt. This was why paranormal investigators were told to quarantine black Rukh like this. There was no hope for it, not if talking didn’t work, and Aladdin was the only one crazy enough to try talking. If one of those Rukh flew past his throat, he could die from choking on his own blood.

“This isn’t fate, Alibaba! This isn’t what fate is!” Aladdin sobbed, his voice cracking with fear, sinking to his knees because he couldn’t stand any longer.

Alibaba silenced all of the Rukh with just a look, and those dead eyes of his looked like there was nothing but hate in them. But, every time a drop of blood hit the floor and flew off as a tiny black bird, Aladdin knew he couldn’t just walk away. If he didn’t help Alibaba, no one would, and he’d just be hurt for all of eternity, never able to return to the flow.

“Fate is…”

What was fate, for Aladdin? It wasn’t a turn of events, it was…

“Fate is learning from what life puts you through, your mistakes and hardships, and moving on to help others. It doesn’t decide all the events of the world because you are free to make your own choices,” Aladdin struggled to his feet, and he looked at his bleeding palms and shaky breaths and knew he had found the right thing to say, “And if your fate was truly awful, you’d never have met me, ever. It was fate that I came here at all.”

Alibaba’s eyes changed. Somehow they looked a bit gold, a bit brighter, “You always are the same, no matter what.”

“What do you mean?” He asked the apparition.

“You always say the right thing, I mean,” Alibaba laughed, a gentle sort of chuckle that softened his eyes, and spots of white Rukh emerged with the black.

Aladdin shook his head, “I’m human, I screw up too.”

“Will you stay with me for a little bit?” Alibaba asked, reaching out his hand, the one that was still there. He had bitten fingernails, and blood staining his palm, and the gesture was meaningless, because Aladdin couldn’t touch Rukh like that. Their hands would pass right through one another.

“I want to help you,” Aladdin said, and he reached out with his own hand, “So I can stay for a little bit.”

As soon as their fingertips touched, it was like a bomb going off. The entire motel rattled, the walls shaking and dust blowing into clouds of grit around them. Their fingertips didn’t even really touch, just passed through one another, but Aladdin knew it had worked, because all of the black Rukh were gone. Brilliant white ones were fluttering everywhere, blinding him.

When Aladdin steadied himself, and the waves of Rukh faded once more, he looked against at the hand he was reaching out for, and the person attached to it.

Alibaba had completely changed somehow, transformed from something that inspired fear in him to something that filled him with comfort.

“It doesn’t matter what universe we’re in,” Alibaba said, returning his hand to his side, “It’s fate that we’ll meet. Only this time, I can’t stay, can I? I got what I wanted, though… I’m sorry, Aladdin, I’m so sorry. I’m awful, I’m selfish, I hurt everyone just so I could get this one, stupid thing—!” His head, his hair now a shining gold color, hung and tears dripped down his face.

Aladdin finally understood.

He hadn’t been able to tell before, hadn’t been able to see because of all the darkness and obscurity that had kept it from him, had fogged up his head. Alibaba’s depravity had kept secret to him something blindingly obvious.

“You were wrong and you made mistakes, but I’m not mad! Don’t hurt yourself like that,” the paranormal investigator tried to say, even though his voice choked up with tears, “I said I would stay for a little bit! I won’t make you leave yet, I don’t have to. Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine.”

Alibaba looked up, eyes filled with life and light, white Rukh sparkling around him, and smiled, “Okay.”

* * *

Aladdin slumped against his friend’s back, tired from a day full of swimming. Stretching out his arms, he asked thoughtlessly, “Do you ever think about what things would be like if we lived in a different world?”

“Like, if we lived in the future or the distant past or something?“ Alibaba snorted, his blond hair dripping water onto Aladdin’s forehead.

“No, like, in another universe. An alternate universe, where everything was so different it made no sense,” the magi corrected.

“Huh…” Alibaba seemed to give it some thought, his muscles relaxing under Aladdin.

“I think it’d be awful to live in a world without my friends,” Aladdin prompted again, desperate to hear something. He wasn’t quite sure what, and he wasn’t used to expressing things so closely related to Alma Toran to his king candidate, when he knew Solomon wanted absolutely no one to know.

“It’s okay,” Alibaba grinned, shaking his head to get the water out of his hair like a dog, “It doesn’t matter. We’d find each other somehow in another world, right? Morgiana too! And everyone else! We’re all friends, so we wouldn’t have to live a life alone no matter how strange the place is. Isn’t that the sort of destiny we fight for?”


End file.
